


The keys to our salvation

by Lexis_Patterson



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Castiel is a Good Friend, Crowley sipping tea, Dean Winchester is Protective of Castiel, Demons, Evil, Evil Plans, Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-17
Updated: 2018-11-17
Packaged: 2019-08-24 22:14:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 15
Words: 3,886
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16648835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lexis_Patterson/pseuds/Lexis_Patterson
Summary: -  Sam and Dean are just looking for a hunt, but it seems like after they stopped the apocalypse, all evil just went night, night. That was until; Castiel resurfaced, with a message, a warning. They know about the keys, they want to find them just as bad as the boys do, and now they’ll have to work fast to defeat whatever comes at them, like they always do, but this time it’s different, this time the fate of survival and human instinct combine, to create ( another ) giant mess.These are the keys to our salvation…





	1. There's nothing left Dean

**Author's Note:**

> Based during seasons 4,5 and the start of 6. ( just for a rough idea of timelines )  
> Hi, this is the first FanFiction I've ever written and posted, so I hope you enjoy it. It is short because I had never written one before, and I was just dabbling in the idea of starting to write one.

Dean walked into the library that was idly stationed beside the motel that they had been staying at for the past week, since the apocalypse and the disappearance of Castiel.  
“Dude, why are you still in here, you have been having a try not to blink contest with your laptop for like 2 days straight!”  
He said to Sam, and as he did, Sam still did not break his gaze from the blue tinted screen.   
And then, finally, he replied  
“I don’t know man, it seems like we stopped the apocalypse and now there’s nothing. I mean we haven’t seen a wedigo in at least a year, and don’t ask me the last time we saw a straight up vengeful spirit!”  
Sam was clearly agitated at this point and his eyes were sticking closed every time he blinked   
“Sam, maybe you should get some sleep, we can look for a hunt in the morning, but your no use to us when your practically a zombie”  
Sam hesitantly agreed, and was soon up out of his seat and heading back to the room. Dean followed shortly after.

It was dark outside, dark, cold and wet, but still, dean stopped and stood in the middle of the empty parking lot and said aloud “where are you dude, Cas common, we need you, I need you…”


	2. Just in time for dinner

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Castiel returns...

It was about 8 pm at this point and Sam was fast asleep on the bed and Dean, who was sitting on the bed opposite him, had contemplated making some food or going to the diner across the street, but he decided otherwise so he just sat there reading a magazine and listening to some good old AC/DC on his stereo, volume on low  
That’s when he heard all too familiar flapping sound and looked up to see none other than Castiel standing at the foot of his bed, he stood for about 2.5 seconds before collapsing onto the floor, he was covered in blood , Dean wasn’t sure whether it was cas’ or someone else’s but that question was quickly answered when he saw the blade that had been dug into his chest.  
“Cas!”  
Dean yelled, and his shouting shocked Sam awake  
“Cas, Cas What Happened to you?!”  
Dean was now on the floor and holding cas’ head up with one hand and used the other to apply slight pressure to the wound on his chest.  
“The-they found m-e-e” he stuttered, choking on his own blood.  
“They-They know a-about the ke-keys…”  
His voice faded as he fell unconscious. Dean frantically checked for his pulse, which was there, but just barely…


	3. Whiskey and patience

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hint at destiel, but not too much :)

Dean Motioned Sam over to help him pull Cas up onto the bed.  
“Go get some bandages!” Dean demanded  
“I’ll try and clean out the wound.”   
Dean knew he would have to pull the dagger out from Castiel’s chest, and that it was gonna hurt like hell, maybe worse, but he knew that he had to do it.   
Castiel was still unconscious but still, Dean did a little “3,2,1” before pulling the blade out from the angel's chest. The pain restored Castiel’s consciousness and the sharp ache instantly worsened and Castiel scrunched up into a ball in an effort to relieve the pain, but it did nothing but make it worse.  
“ Cas, don’t move, please you’re gonna make it more painful for yourself.”   
Dean reached up and grabbed the bottle of whiskey off of the bedside drawer and poured some on to his hand and then used it to sterilize the wound. Cas whimpered slightly as the alcohol reached the blood-drenched laceration on his chest, Dean held on to Cas’ shoulder in an effort to both hold him down and in some form, comfort him.   
“Everything’s ok, look, I’m here, you’re gonna be fine.”  
He soon calmed, and Sam returned with the bandages and they patched up the wound as best they could.


	4. How could they have known?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They knew Sammy!

Dean and Sam walked into the kitchen after settling Cas into one of the two beds in the other room.  
“What did he say to you back there?” Sam asked  
“I was still sorta out of it when you two were talking.”

“He said that ‘they’ found him, whoever ‘they’ are, and that they, they knew about the keys, Sammy how could someone else know about them, we didn’t even tell Bobby that we knew that they existed…”  
“I don’t know Dean, but they went to some serious lengths to get some information out of Cas, and whether or not they got anything, I don’t know, but I don’t think we’re dealing with a simple demon here man.”  
They exchanged worried looks before Dean went over to the fridge, opened the door, got out two cold beers, closed the door and then handed one to Sam and opened the other one for himself. He took two swigs and then finally said  
“What if it’s not a demon? What if it’s one of the archangels? You know someone up there that doesn’t like what’s going on down here…”  
Sam pondered at the idea for a second and then nodded, before taking a sip of his own beer.


	5. A moment to think

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dean stayed up all night to make sure Cas would be ok

The next morning Cas awoke to the two boys sitting on the couch watching TV, Sam was asleep but Dean was still wide awake.  
“Have you been awake all night?” Cas asked, yawning halfway through.  
“ Cas! Eh, yeah, well you were, kinda, shaking in your sleep, so I just decided better be safe than sorry and so I stayed up just to make sure nothing else happened to you” He looked away for a second and then back to meet Cas’ gaze  
“Thank you, Dean.” He yawned again and then gripped his side in pain  
“Ah yeah you best not make any sudden movements for a while, just until that heals up a bit, you were hit with that blade pretty hard!”  
Dean sounded concerned, more concerned than usual  
2 hours later  
Sam was awake and was in the kitchen making waffles and Cas and Dean were sitting on the bed talking and coming up with a game plan of what their next move was gonna be on finding the keys.  
When Sam returned he handed them their plates and then sat down on the bed beside Dean, with Cas on the other bed facing them. They all sat in silence for a few minutes while they ate their breakfast, and to be honest I think that neither of them really knew what to say next. It was a tough situation to be in, considering that Cas seemed too scared to tell them who, or what had attacked him.


	6. Take us back...

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cas shows the boys what happened to him

The boys sat there for a good hour just laughing and talking about random things, This was Dean’s idea because he didn’t want to just jump straight into the deep end with Cas and just straight up ask him to say exactly what happened. It was gonna take time, and Sam and Dean both knew that and were both prepared to wait, as long as they had too.  
Eventually, Cas finally spoke up and said,   
“ I’m assuming you boys are going to want the full story then, a full explanation of everything that happened and the events that led up to the attack?”  
Sam and Dean shot each other a surprised look, before turning back to Cas, who was now slightly smirking at the expressions of the Winchester brothers faces.  
“I’m an angel of the lord, I know when someone wants to know something, and honestly, you boys are just really bad at keeping me distracted.”  
He laughed. “I don’t know if I describe exactly what happened to me, but I believe that I can show you.  
Then, without warning, Cas touched the brother’s foreheads and they both slumped down onto the bed simultaneously.  
They both awoke in an unknown place and looked around for some sign of recognisable territory, but there was nothing, it was just a large, empty warehouse. Then Cas appeared, but it wasn’t their Cas.


	7. Before the attack

Dean approached Cas, and tried talking to him, waving in his face like a madman, but he got no reaction  
“ I don’t think he can see you, Dean.” Sam explained, “Well, thank you captain obvious!” Dean shook his head “Sorry” Sam muttered, under his breath. Dean shot him a look, before turning back to the conversation unfolding in front of them.  
Cas, another man, who was slightly taller than him, and…Crowley?!  
“Sammy, is that Crowley?” “What the heck is Crowley doing here?” “I don’t know, maybe he’s here too…help?” Sam as obviously confused as well.  
“So, are we going to make this deal or not.” Crowley asked, “Crowley, you must have patience.” The other man spoke, the stranger.  
They stood there in silence for a few moments before Castiel said “The brothers, they don’t know where the keys are. No one does. I’ve told you that before, so really I don’t understand what kind of a deal you think we are going to be making here.”   
The stranger stared at Castiel and then at Crowley and then returned his gaze to Cas, “What about you, do you know the location of the keys?”  
“No, of course, I don’t!” Castiel gulped like anyone does when they are lying.


	8. " I don't appreciate fibbers!"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The stranger...

“Well, that seemed like a bit of a, shall we say, lie!”  
The stranger moved forward so fast it seemed like he had just teleported. One minute he was there and the next he was no more than 2 inches from Castiel’s face, and then he grabbed him by the neck and raised him up, Castiel struggled against the man’s grip, but it was pointless, he was too strong.  
“You know, I don’t appreciate fibbers!” The man said, before dropping Castiel to the floor, he turned around and began to walk away but Cas got up and swung the man around to face him and then threw a mighty punch that sent the stranger flying across the room.  
“Yeah, well I don’t appreciate almost being strangled!” Castiel yelled at the man, who was now in a lump on the other side of the room  
The man got up and stormed towards Castiel with red fury in his eyes, and Cas’ lit up a bright blue. Then the fight broke out, with each of them throwing each other around and punching each other. All this was going on while Crowley was just sitting back, sipping on some tea that had magically appeared in his hands, which he seemed to be really enjoying, that was until the man was thrown Crowley’s way and he disappeared in an effort to not get hit, this left Castiel alone. Then the fight got so bad, and that’s when the man took a blade out from his pocket and dug it into Cas’ chest. Cas then disappeared soon after that and only the stranger remained in the otherwise empty warehouse


	9. But who is he?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where the hell did he go?

The boys awoke back in the motel room, but Cas was nowhere to be seen. Dean got up and scouted the room looking for him, swerving in and out of rooms.  
“He’s gone!” “How could he just leave after showing us that, without explaining any of it!”  
That’s when the room door opened and Cas walked in holding a can of 7up.  
“Ah your awake, good, I was beginning to wonder why it was taking so long.” “So, did you see what happened?”  
“Yeah, who was that guy? And what’s this deal that Crowley said about?!” Dean asked  
“Ah yes, the deal, well you see this, ‘deal’ is to do with finding the keys, Crowley wants them, so does the stranger and, well so do we. The deal was that whoever got to the keys first got to live but you could forfeit a human sacrifice, which in our case we were pre-assigned you three.” “ Us ‘THREE’ who’s the 3rd dude?” “ Adam” Castiel replied “ Wait, What? Why us? And why Adam? We haven’t seen Adam in ages!” Dean was confused as was Sam.  
“I’m afraid I don’t know. But I do know one thing, This man, the one you refer to as ‘stranger’ goes by the name of Adieus Malcolm Heath, but his true name is, in fact, Caym, he was once in the high order of the angels, but now he commands the 30th legion, one of the most powerful armies of hell.


	10. Finding the keys

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Look Familiar?

The boys packed up their bags and loaded the Impala with all of their belongings. Dean slammed the trunk closed and then made his way to the driver’s seat, Sam in the passenger’s seat and Cas in the back.  
They drove for hours, stopping occasionally to use the toilet or grab a drink. Until they came to a small diner outside of a pretty derelict town, probably only had a few oldies living there. They all went in and got seated, Dean ordered a cheese and bacon burger, Sam ordered a salad and Cas asked for the location of the keys, which we then had to cover up by saying “for the bathroom, you know how sometimes the bathrooms are locked” Dean laughed awkwardly to try and distract the waitress from Cas’ strange comment, She shook it off and said that the bathrooms weren’t locked and then smiled as she walked away.  
“Dude, you can’t just go around asking waitresses where a bunch of ancient keys are?! They’ll think you’re crazy!” Dean tried explaining, but it had no effect, Cas just tilted his head In confusion.  
“ugh never mind” Dean huffed and this clearly made Cas seem disappointed in himself so Sam hopped in and said, “ so guys, get this.” He turned the computer screen around to face the two and on the screen was an advert for a vintage antique shop just down the street, and there was a list of some of the items they sold and some came with pictures, and it just so happened that on the list was a set of old keys, and when they all saw the picture, before Dean or Cas could say anything, Sam said “look familiar?”


	11. Nice old lady, strange old cat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Orange tabby...

The Antique shop was old, dark and musty, but the little old lady who owned it was lovely. She brought us all coffee as we sat down on the couch and she sat across from us. “So how long have you been in possession of the keys?” Castiel asked “Ah” she begun “these keys have been in my family for generations, handed down, as a symbol of ‘good luck’. Biggest load of lies if ya asked me, all it’s ever done for me is collect dust in the corner of my attic!” That’s when the orange tabby jumped up onto the old ladies lap and curled up into a tiny wee ball, it stared at the three of them for a moment, before ducking its head into its own fur and begging to purr. The cat had a strange way about it, and it made Cas most uncomfortable, which Sam found very odd, considering that not a lot could make Cas uncomfortable.  
“So, if you don’t mind, could we take the keys out of your hands?” Dean asked, a little too hastily if you asked me. But I think that he had noticed Cas’ discomfort and just wanted out of there as soon as possible.  
Back out in the street after retrieving the keys, which they all found suspiciously easy to obtain, the 3 boys got back into the car and began to drive off, prepared to put the whole thing behind them, but apparently, Adieus ( Caym ) had different ideas. The car stopped abruptly, and then Cas yelled, “look out!” As he pointed at the vehicle being thrown their way. Dean pushed hard on the accelerator and swerved left just in time to miss the car. Adieus had come for the keys as well.


	12. "Not my car you son of a.."

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Don't touch Deans baby!

They all hopped out of the car and opened the trunk as quickly as possible to grab as many weapons as they could, the salt, holy water, a machete, just anything.  
They were constantly ducking, then running, ducking then running and it was a pointless fight at this point because they were getting nowhere. Finally, Castiel emerged from behind one of the cars that he was hiding behind and held up both his hands in an effort to surrender. Adieus stopped everything he was doing and approached Castiel. Sam and Dean didn’t dare leave the safety of the wall they were hiding behind, but Dean did pop his head out occasionally just to check to make sure Cas was ok.  
“ Caym, you don’t have to do this, we can work together, the keys can save all of us!”  
They argued back and forth for about 15 minutes   
“ Castiel, I don’t think you understand the situation we are in right now.” “There can only be one outcome, if you and Crowley and I are bound to the keys then I cannot use them without you two dead.”  
He raised his hand and threw Castiel backwards, he hit a wall and it knocked him out. He rose his hand again and this time sent a piece of shrapnel flying at the Impala, Dean yelled as he got out from behind the sheltering wall and began firing rounds of rock salt into Caym’s chest, “ Not my car you son of a…” his voice was drowned out by the sound of the firing rounds of the machine gun.


	13. It's over, we're better now.

Caym fell to the ground and the black smoke exited the now dead body and escaped into the night sky.  
Dean dropped his gun and ran as fast as he could over to Castiel, who was strung up on the wall with a piece of a car door through his shoulder. Dean carefully removed it and they made their way to the nearest pharmacy and ransacked the place to get as many supplies as they could to ensure that the damage to Cas’ shoulder wasn’t permanent. Luckily they got to him just in time and it was healed up in a matter of hours (Thanks to Castiel's’ whole angel mojo)  
They got into the car and drove off as soon as possible, so they didn’t have to deal with talking to the police and explaining what happened.  
“So is that it? Is that Caym gone, or will he be coming back for these things?” Dean held up the keys so that Cas, who was slumped in the back seat of the car, could see what he was talking about. “I don’t believe that he will be bothering us anymore, but he may go after Crowley, not sure for certain, but he might,” Castiel explained. “Well I guess we will just have to warn Crowley before Caym can get to him,” Sam said. “Did somebody call?” Crowley had appeared in the backseat beside Castiel and was smiling for some reason, probably because he somehow found this situation to be funny.  
“Crowley!”  
“Yes, that is my name, now, where are the keys?”


	14. Power underestimated

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Don't you dare remind him of something as horrible as that!

“Why do you think we’d give you the Keys?!” Dean asked  
“Well, because you like me, and also if you don’t I will burn this car and everyone in it to a crisp, so id highly recommend it!” Dean huffed and tried to explain that the keys where theirs and he wasn’t getting them, but it was no use, “No, you see I don’t think you understand just how powerful these keys are, they can destroy whole cities in an instant. You humans wouldn’t understand that, and it would seem that Castiel here has forgotten what it did too that little town in Michigan, the one that he couldn’t save, all those people looked to you for hope, and you let them down, you let them die.” Dean had enough of this, he pulled the car over and yelled at Crowley for bringing such a bad memory up for Cas, he could see that Cas was upset about this because Crowley had reminded him.  
They told Crowley that he wasn’t getting the keys and that he was just going to have to accept that. He disappeared with a huff, but not another word was said.   
They arrived back at the motel and they placed the keys onto the bed. “What are we gonna do with them?” Dean asked  
“I think the only thing we can do is burn them, to ensure that no one else gets their hands on them.” Cas didn’t seem to want to do this, but he knew it was the only way.  
“You heard Crowley, in the wrong hands, this thing could destroy Cities,” Sam said.


	15. " Why don't you stay with us?"

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dean wants Castiel to stay, and Castiel wants too aswell.

They all agreed on burning the keys, and so they lit a fire in a trash can outside.  
“You know, these keys can do great things as well, they could end all evil and give you boys your normal lives back if you wanted.”   
“ Cas, I don’t know if we have a ‘normal life’ to get back, I think that after all that’s happened, saving people, hunting things, that is our life, and that doesn’t need to change.” Dean looked at Sam and they gave each other a little nod before Dean turned back to Cas.  
“Well then, I guess this is it.” “Guess it is…” Dean agreed  
They through the keys into the fire and watched as the metal turned red and melted away to nothing.  
Back in the motel room, Dean sat down on the bed and Sam pulled over a chair beside him. Cas sat on the bed on the opposite side. “So it seems like this is the part where I leave again then.” Cas said, slowly and hanging his head in a manner that just screamed ‘please don’t make me go’ “Well, you don’t have too, you could stay with us.” Cas’ eyes widened as Dean said this and then he couldn’t help but show his smile. “Are you sure you’d be ok with that?” He asked, just to make sure. “Of course, it’s always handy to have an extra pair of hands, besides you’re our friend as well so it’s always ok.” Sam joined in. It was settled, Cas would stay with the brothers and the three of them would live happily ever after.  
That is until the next time one of them activates the end of the world, or one of them dies and goes to hell and then gets resurrected.

 

So in the end, it seemed that the keys brought them salvation, not by saving the world but by reuniting these three amazing people.  
The early high school dropout, the recovering blood addict, and the angel who rebelled from heaven  
They may not know it now, but these three would go on the do greater things, that don’t include making an apocalypse ten times worse or killing each other and everyone else in the process. No, they would go on to save the world, and somehow, save each other from the darkest pits that contain demons far worse than the ones found in hell.   
Team free will, back at it again with endlessly throwing salt and holy water at everyone they meet just to make sure they’re not a demon, and dying, there’s a lot more dying to come, so just you wait and get ready for the emotional rollercoaster that is…

Supernatural


End file.
